2015 Distinguished career award: Reflections on a career in science

I was very pleased to receive the 2015 Distinguished Career Award from SSIB. This brief manuscript contains reminisces that might stir up pleasant memories in the older members of SSIB and also some general thoughts that I hope will be of value to the younger investigators who are closer to the beginning of their scientific careers. Although the organization has chosen to honor me with this special award, my own career was shaped by a great many people who have influenced my scientific career and I want to acknowledge them. They include Neal Miller, my doctoral mentor at Yale; Joe Holmes and Alan Epstein, my postdoctoral mentors; George Wolf and Reed Hainsworth, graduate student colleagues; John Brobeck, Paul Rozin, and Phil Teitelbaum, Michael Zigmond, Joe Verbalis, Jim Smith, and Alan Sved, faculty colleagues; Derek Denton, Paul McHugh, and James Fitzsimons, scientific role models; John Bruno, Steve Fluharty, and Linda Rinaman, post-doctoral trainees at Pitt; and Lori Flanagan, Kath Curtis, Michael Bushey, Mike Bykowski, Reza Manesh, Carrie Smith, Jennifer Vaughan, and Myriam Stricker, student trainees at Pitt. I thank them all and also my colleagues in SSIB not only for the honor of this award but for providing an abundant supply of insights and discoveries that have stimulated me throughout my adult life, in addition to being an attentive community in supporting my own work.